Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Okay, so this morning I go to turn on my computer and all of a sudden the screen goes black and the computer shuts itself off. Then it starts to turn itself back on again, only it didn't quite make it all the way. Next thing I know, I'm smelling the scent of burning electical, so I turned off everything! I tell Hubs, who has become my personal computer geek, and he says to me, "It sounds like the motherboard has fried." A resounding "NO-O-O-O-O!!!" is heard from deep within me. See, I had literally hundreds of pictures saved on my computer that I had been meaning to burn to cd's but hadn't gotten around to it. Now my worstcomputer nightmare has seemingly happened and I've lost all those irreplaceable photos that I should have burned to cd's long, long ago! So Hubs, being the wanna-be computer guru that he is, took my computer to his "laboratory". He somehow managed to get it to turn on and actually got all the files of pictures to come up. We worked all afternoon at condensing files and burning them onto cd's. There is still something grossly wrong with the computer, but my precious photos have been safely retrieved and saved to cd's. So now, if it is the motherboard, or the hard-drive, or whatever it is, I don't have to worry because we were able to save ALL of my files, including all photos and all documents. I normally give hubs a hard time about being a computer geek, but I tell you what, after this scare, I don't think I'll be making fun of him any time soon! I'm very very grateful for the knowledge he has about computers. So hopefully, I'll be back up and running again soon, and won't have to be posting or reading from a different computer, because I don't like it. I really want my computer back! TTFN, :)

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Does anyone know how to make the pictures come out side-by-side on this blogger thingy? My posts always end up being a mile long because of all the pictures I add, and I don't know how to make them go side-by-side, which would take up much less space, plus it would look better too. So if anyone knows how to do it, please let me know. Thanks.

Last post showed you pics of the Women's Ministries January meeting at the church. This past Saturday, Hubs did his annual Pastor's Breakfast for the men. They were all very pleasantly surprised to walk in and find the room looking like men belonged there, instead of being all pink and foofy! Here's what it looked like:The entrance...The Beverage Bar...The tablescapes...The Food Table...What a change from just one week ago! Now the men are telling us they will expect this every time they meet. Hubs says 'Aim low, avoid disappointment!' They won't get this treatment again unless they do it themselves. Ha! O, and here they all are, pigging out on the food that me and Esther made for them...Sausage & Egg Casserole, bacon, o'brian potatoes, homemade buttermilk biscuits & gravy, fresh fruit, danish, and three flavors of muffins...The men were all happy and gave us ladies lots of kudos for doing all this for them, so it was worth it. I know they truly did appreciate it!

Monday, January 21, 2008

This past Saturday marked the new year in Women's Ministries at our church. Our theme for January is "Dream, Believe, Achieve...I can do all things thru Christ Who strengthens me. Philippians 4:8". I chose the color scheme of pink, white and silver, with a wintery, dreamy, ethereal sort of effect. Four of us did the decorating, and, as always, we had several of our ladies bring the yummiest foods for everyone to enjoy. So here's a few pics of the day...The food table...A close-up of one of the seating tables...A few of our wonderful ladies...Our theme banner made by one of our "artsy ladies"...The words "Dream", "Believe", "Achieve" framed...I made these wands, trimmed in glitter and fur, that have our theme printed on them...This is Helen, our Women's Ministries Director in our church...And this is "Miss Lily", the newest "member" of our group. She'll be joining us each month, sporting a different outfit each time...We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, caring group of ladies that are part of our Women's Ministries group. They are talented beyond belief, in arts/crafts, music, cooking, gifted public speakers...the list could go on and on. I am so very thankful that I get to be their "pastor-ess" (if there is such a word)and that I have the privilege of working with and fellowshiping with the most wonderful group of women anyone could ask for! TTNT, :)

Sunday, January 13, 2008

So, after several readers of my blog told me that my polka dots took waaay too long to load on their computers, and because I was wanting some sort of change anyhow, I decided to change my blog template. So here it is. I hope it doesn't take as long as the polka dots to load up - at least it doesn't on my computer. I love the hot pink and green colors together. I thought the polka dots were so pretty, but, alas, all good things must come to an end, I guess. So, if you are still reading my humble little blog, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the new layout, and if it loads easily or not on your computers. And if it doesn't, then maybe someone out there could teach me how to customize my own template without having to use these predesigned ones from either Blogger or Pyzam. Thanks for your input. Smiles 'til the next time!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

I've been wanting to start posting regularly again, but the whole family has been sick all week long, mostly me. Sunday night the kidlet suddenly started throwing up and having chills. She was sick all night long and well into Monday evening. But she was feeling good by Tuesday and went to school. Hubs and I took a short trip to his brother's house on Tuesday to get brother to cut some stars for me for a craft project I'm doing. Got home Tuesday afternoon and by early evening I was starting to get chills, then came the vomiting. Aren't you readers so glad I'm sharing this with you? I thought so! Anyway, it lasted until late Wednesday afternoon. I began to feel better, then Wednesday night, hubs started in. First the chills, then the vomiting. Thursday we both felt better, but just lazed around all day. Friday I woke up and felt like it was all starting again. I just layed around the house all day, and mostly moaned and complained to hubs about how bad I felt. But by this morning, I was feeling 1,000% better, and got up and began doing chores. Had a lot of shopping to do at several different places, but my last stop was the best. It was at Michael's. I was determined to go there by today, even if I had to crawl there, because I had a 40% coupon and some saved-up money burning a hole in my pocket! If you're a regular Michael's shopper, you'll remember seeing these wreaths there before Christmas. The original price was $29.99. No way could I bring myself to pay that much for it, even though I thought it was so pretty and wanted it really badly. Not even a 50% coupon could lure me into getting it. But today! Today it was marked down to $5.99, an 80% savings! Now there's no way I could pass it up! So into my hot little hands it went as I marched right up to that register and paid for that sucker. I also got these, just because I thought they were pretty and a bargain at 70% off the original price. I have not idea what I'm going to do with them, but couldn't resist them either. Also got a 75' bolt of wired silver ribbon, 3" wide, for 80% off. So what did I end up getting with my 40% coupon? My original reason for going there today? I found a package of cute little silver candy scoops that are the perfect size to use with my jar collection. I forgot to take a pic of them, so sorry you can't see them. But I've been looking for scoops of this size literally for a couple of years, even before I started the jar collection. I was walking down an aisle and looked up at some wedding favor stuff hanging on the end of the aisle, and boom, there they were. I will definately get more, just as soon as I get another coupon. So there you have it, folks. The story of my nearly week-long intimate relationship with the porcelain god, and my wise buys which make me feel infinately better than I already was just for the sheer pleasure of "thinking" I pulled a 'fast one' on an already overpriced retail chain! Of course we all know that I didn't really pull anything on anyone, but at least it makes me feel good to think it, even if only for a few moments! TTNT, :o)

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Friday, January 4, 2008

Today was another day for a funeral. Two people in our church died on the same day and Wednesday was the first funeral, today the second. She was 89 1/2 years old and had been married for 70 years to her husband, who himself will turn 94 in 6 days. It was sad.Another note from yesterday's news - Huckabee and Obama won the Iowa caucus. Now that's also a sad story. Is this the best our country can come up with to potentially be the president? Sad, very sad.And, the rain that's been predicted for a week now, has finally shown up. I'm telling you, it's also a sad story because of all the media hoopla over rain. I mean, I know this is sunny So. California, and as the song goes, "It never rains in California", but it IS officially wintertime, and it actually DOES rain here periodically. But the sad thing is that the news media hypes everything so far beyond reason that it just makes me want to scream! In October and November we had devastating fires here in So. Cal. So, ever since the weather forecasters have said there will be rain, the news media has been camped out at the burn areas predicting disaster brought on by the rains. "Oh, it's going to rain hard and long, and there will be flooding for sure, especially in the burn-out areas." Well, so far, the big rainstorm is 2 days late in arriving, and, it's just a light shower, not much heavier than a sprinkle. Well, enough griping for one post. I'm kind of on a rampage because it hasn't been the best of days today, and so far, this new year is crapping out! A good note is that today I got another set of jars for my embellishment center and I'm determined to get organized. As I was typing right now, I could see out of the corner of my eye our Momma Cat and one of her babies "dukin' it out"! Literally. They were both sitting on their hind legs boxing at each other with their front paws. Now they are having a stare-down wit each other. My little cat family brings me lots of pleasure just watching how they interact with each other. So, I'll end this post on that note, 'cause it made me laugh out loud watching their little boxing match. By the way, Momma Cat won - she always does! :)

Thursday, January 3, 2008

This is the fairy tale that should have been read to us when we were little.

Once upon a time in a land far away,a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle. ~~~~~~~~ The frog hopped into the princess' lap and said:'Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome prince,until an evil witch cast a spell upon me. ~~~~~~~~ One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother, ~~~~~~~~ where you can prepare my meals, ~~~~~~~~ clean my clothes, bear my children, ~~~~~~~~ and forever feel grateful and happy doing so.' ~~~~~~~~ That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sautéed frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, ~~~~~~~~ she chuckled and thought to herself: ~~~~~~~~ I don't think so.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Wow, here it is, already January 2nd. How time flies when you're having fun, right? Only today wasn't such a fun day. We had the funeral for one of our very oldest church members. Well, she wasn't the oldest in age, but one of the longest-time members. It was kind of a sad occassion, but ten not really all that sad if you believe, as we do, that she is now in the presence of the Lord. And that's a good thing! But it was sad for her family and friends who loved her and will miss her very much. But isn't that how we all usually try to look at death? That the deceased is in a better place and we grieve for ourselves and our own loss? But being with people you love, and sharing happy memories of the deceased, made it as "fun" as a funeral day could possibly be.On to a lighter note. For Christmas Hubby gave me a gift card to Michael's, so on Monday I went there and got this Embellishment Center, and yesterday Hubby hung it up for me, so now I can get all nice and organized to do my crafts. That's one of my goals for the year, is to get organized and do lots of crafting. So now all I have to do is actually organize my supplies and get busy crafting lots of goodies!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

FINALLY, ERROR MESSAGES WE CAN ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDOld HaroldI was having trouble with my computer. So I called Harold the computer guy, to come over. Harold clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.He gave me a bill for a minimum service call. As he was walking away, I called after him, "So, what was wrong?" He replied, "It was an ID ten T error." I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, "An, ID ten T error? What's that ..... in case I need to fix it again?"Harold grinned.... "Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?""No," I replied."Write it down," he said, "and I think you'll figure it out."So I wrote down: I D 1 0 TI used to like Harold................